Be sure to cite it properly.
Today we worked on our Act 1 and 2 paragraphs for a half an hour and discussed soliloquy 4.
We spoke about Act 2 as an accumulation of complications:
Look at them all:
- Hamlet's madness,
- his distraught and silent encounter with Ophelia
- Polonius' meddling into his daughter's affairs, reading her love letters aloud, plotting to use Ophelia as a pawn to ascertain Hamlet's reasons for his madness
- Setting Ophelia up to take the blame
- Polonius sends a spy to Paris to tempt/seduce his son Laertes to test his mortality
- Fortinbras is off to Poland to retrieve lands lost by his father
- Hamlet is morose--his so-called friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are hired thugs, pawns of Claudius
- The ghost--real or imagined? Fair or foul?
- Gertrude's lack of action via her son. Announces that it's her marriage and the death of Hamlet Sr. causing Hamlet's madness but hopes to pin the blame onto sweet and innocent Ophelia
- Claudius continuing to enjoy the fruits of murder-kingdom and queen
- Hamlet inspired by the visit of the players to prove Claudius' guilt
- references to Hecuba and the Pyrrhic victory
- actors as character foils--Hamlet still veiled in silence, those "veiled lids" returning, alone, alienated, yet aware of the "rotten" state of Denmark
- Hamlet taking on the sins of the fathers--"too much in the sun", his loss of innocence arising from having to face and contemplate the duality of man, including his parents and himself,
- Hamlet questioning his own identity. First he questions those around him--mother and uncle and then the ghost forces him to bring his father down from the pedestal ---- Ach, it's a mess, Laddies and Lassies
I'm looking forward to reading your interpretations of Hamlet's character.
I returned the novel essays today.
What will ACT 3 set upon us? Tune in Monday to find out.
